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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Eliza Noelle was born on January 25, 2012 at 10:42pm. She was 7 pounds 14 ounces and 20 inches long.

Looking at this picture I can hardly believe it's already been 6 weeks since my sweet baby was born... but at the same time it seems like it's been a lifetime. I feel like I've known her my whole life... and I guess I kinda have :)

Here is the story of my labor and delivery with Eliza...

I began early labor early around 2am on tuesday the 24th. I had contractions all night but mild like cramps and very tolerable. This continued all day long, and at 1am wednesday my water broke. I went to the hospital at the call of my midwife and she met us around 2. They told me to sleep but I was too excited! So i didn't... big mistake :/ lol

My first labor nurse wanted me to have an IV, for the following things: fluids, drawing blood and pitocin. I had made sure my midwife knew that of all the things I didn't want during my labor, it was pitocin. And the other two things I didn't see a need for. Donna (my midwife) had previously told me I would not need an IV during labor, so I politely declined. The nurse tried to convince me it was necessary and that my baby was actually "not looking good" at the moment because her activity was so low... maybe she was sleeping at 2am? just a thought. At any rate, I resisted because I've had an IV before and knew how uncomfortable they are... if not necessary, I'd just rather not. So while the nurse tried to guilt me into it, I asked her if we could just wait until Donna arrived to make the decision... and at that moment Donna walked in. She agreed with me that I didn't need it and we moved on.

I was 4cm 100% and +1 when admitted and by 9am I had only progressed to 5cm. By 1pm I had progressed to 6cm but things were moving so slowly and contractions were still around 5 minutes apart that I began walking and moving around the room a lot and doing some nipple stimulation. It worked like a charm! By 3pm I was in hard labor and had back labor for the rest of it. During that earlier part of the day, my labor nurse, Chris, was such an amazing support and encouragement to me. It turned out that she was a Christian also and once we all realized we were of the same mindset spiritually, there was a connection there that was so encouraging to see in the midst of such a hard time. At one point, Chris literally laid her hands on my belly and began to pray... pray that the labor would progress. When she did that, I cannot accurately describe what I felt because I've never felt anything like it before. It was a surreal moment where I felt closer to God than I ever have before. I felt as though it wasn't Chris's hands on me, but the Lords...

I had back labor because the baby was posterior. She eventually did turn but unfortunately I had labored so long with her in that position she had bruised me and her little nose was smashed up against my spine... she had a squishy face when she came out ;)

The dr on call was not pleased with how slowly I seemed to be progressing and communicated to Donna that we needed to "come up with a plan to get things moving" It was around 8pm by this point and I had dilated to 8cm and my contractions were giving me about 30 seconds of rest in between... What did the dr want me to do? He wanted me on pitocin to dilate more quickly. I was like uhhhhh NO, at this point I could not handle anything more than I was being given and I knew I would need the epidural with pitocin and I did NOT want things to go slower than they were! Not to mention, I didn't want any of that to begin with. Donna was more than on board with my wants and desires and had no problem with my labor and progress, unfortunately the dr still had a say.

I asked her if there was anything else to do and she said she wanted to check me again, I was progressed to 9cm. She told me I might be able to push to 10cm, but I wasn't feeling pushy AT ALL. So I began standing and sitting over and over and going back and forth from the toilet to the bed until I began to feel just a little pushy. I was still 9 and at +2, she said to push on the next contraction and she got my cervix over the baby's head.

We were good to go at that point, but seeing how slowly everything had progressed, I was envisioning 2 hours of pushing... and I totally flipped out. It was the only point in my labor where I felt totally and completely out of control... and I didn't remember how to push. The labor nurse and Donna coached me on what to do and I pushed for 10 minutes before she was out.

I wanted to have nubane when I was about 8cm, but when Donna told me that I would be sleeping in between and waking for the peak of my contractions, I decided not to because that quite honestly sounded worse than just feeling the whole thing. So in the end, my labor was 100% natural. My highest expectation had been met! I had prepared myself to do what I needed to do and what was best for both me and baby... and I am just delighted to have seen my body do so well!

I had a lot of pain after, but I was able to see my chiropracter and things have been getting squared away! I saw a chiro during my pregnancy as well who helped me a lot with aligning my pelvis and positioning things so that they would open more easily. It took me about 2 weeks before I wasn't having a noticeable amount of pain, and I was delighted with that as I thought it would take a lot longer.

However, because of the quick recovery time, I have been careless with my body... and I'm paying for it! I just didn't realize how much of a toll labor and delivery could take... and then add in the sleep deprivation and it really does take a long time for things to get back to normal. Maybe they never will, really.

I told Steve the other day that this whole thing is horrible and wonderful, awful and amazing all at the same time. I never knew how much I could cry because I'm so happy, but be so frustrated all at the same time. Eliza is so beautiful and I am beyond thankful to be her mommy. She is such a good baby and since she's come home from the hospital she's been sleeping in her crib and getting up to eat about 2 times a night. That was hard to get used to though and I'm still really not used to it. I had a lot of help in the beginning and since then Steve and I have been working together to make things work.

Eliza at 5 and half days old (yes, you count half days when they're this little ;)

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I am 20 something years old. I love Jesus with all my heart. I love my husband. I love my bed. People sometimes tell me that I'm intimidating. I'm all fluff. I am a photographer. I am a care-taker. I am a wife. I am a sister, daughter and friend. I don't like snakes. I don't like mushrooms, unless I can't taste them. I like the idea of hedgehogs and turtles. I love getting dressed up but don't do it often enough. I love getting letters in the mail. I am a hopeless romantic, cliche, I know, but it's true.

Steve is my no-longer-twenty-something husband. He is a mechanical engineer at one of the universities near us and currently works as a lab tech. He fell in love with me, so you can guess he's probably a little crazy... but you'd never know it unless you got to know him :) Still waters run deep they say and it's true, especially with him.

We are expecting to meet our little one around January 21st, 2012 and couldn't be more excited ;)